would a mathematician steal my identity?

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i left my social security card in a photocopier in the math office. mathematicians are good people, right? no one will steal it?

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Saturday, 4 June 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

judging from the messages they send my friends via friendster and myspace the worst that could happen is that one will try to use it to get the tits.jpg

― JW (orion), Saturday, 4 June 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

What punks. Death to all math departments!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 4 June 2005 18:52 (twenty years ago)

They could do more than steal your identity. They could reduce you to zero, divide you from your friends, or even cancel you out.

― moley, Saturday, 4 June 2005 20:48 (twenty years ago)

BEST THREAD EVAH

― caitlin (caitlin), Saturday, 4 June 2005 22:06 (twenty years ago)

Surely if he or she were a real mathematician, they would try to solve the hard, general version of the ID theft problem and then screw up the actual implementation.

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 4 June 2005 22:20 (twenty years ago)

Ok Caitlin first pick a large number that is the product of two prime numbers

― Maths, Saturday, 4 June 2005 22:33 (twenty years ago)

i think the flaming lips are writing a song with this title as we speak.

― Adam Bruneau (oliver8bit), Saturday, 4 June 2005 22:33 (twenty years ago)

They might obtain a credit card in your name and subscribe to conservative porn websites so they can get off on square roots.

― estela (estela), Saturday, 4 June 2005 22:45 (twenty years ago)

Probability one or more members of this board has become a mathematician: 75%

If mathematician reaches civilization, entire world population will become one identity in: 27000 hours.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Saturday, 4 June 2005 23:03 (twenty years ago)

Another try at an answer:
It all depends on whether it is your additive or multiplicative identity.

― k/l (Ken L), Saturday, 4 June 2005 23:20 (twenty years ago)

Some mathematicians are real dicks. I'd be a little apprehensive if I were you, con.

― Lingbertt, Sunday, 5 June 2005 00:20 (twenty years ago)

is jw trying to get me to use the chinese remainder theorem?

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Sunday, 5 June 2005 01:14 (twenty years ago)

yr social security number is completely unimportant

that information doesn't come from me, mind you. i have no idea. i'll give you mine for $5.

― Allyzay flies casual (allyzay), Sunday, 5 June 2005 04:11 (twenty years ago)

Caitlin, I was speaking of RSA but RSA can use the CRT. See Fermat's little theorem for a method of probabilistically finding primes!

― Cool Hand Luuke (ex machina), Sunday, 5 June 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

allyzay, that's what sarah michelle gother told me.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 5 June 2005 17:02 (twenty years ago)

i love fermat's little thm!

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Sunday, 5 June 2005 17:08 (twenty years ago)

In all honesty the SSN really is the least important part of your identification. It's all over the place now, proper businesses and state offices no longer use it as a "something you have" in AAA but just another "something you know" I mean how many times has anybody here ever been asked to use the SS card for ID? More critically
http://sprng.cs.fsu.edu/Version2.0/images/serial-lfg.gif
http://sprng.cs.fsu.edu/Version2.0/images/serial-lfg.gif
http://sprng.cs.fsu.edu/Version2.0/images/serial-lfg.gif
http://sprng.cs.fsu.edu/Version2.0/images/serial-lfg.gif
I mean seriously if somebody wanted to steal your identity they wouldn't need to use your actual SS card to do it, jesus.

― TOMBOT, Sunday, 5 June 2005 17:19 (twenty years ago)

I see a sailboat!

― Cool Hand Luuke (ex machina), Sunday, 5 June 2005 17:21 (twenty years ago)

Back in my hax0r days, I found so much personal info improperly disposed of en masse in unsecured, unshredded trash cans. Like.... bank account numbers and shit.

― Cool Hand Luuke (ex machina), Sunday, 5 June 2005 17:22 (twenty years ago)

ok obviously if i really was afraid of having my identity stolen through my ssn (which is everywhere for anyone who wants it yes) i'd be freaking out a lot more! actually i'm more interested in mathematicians.

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Sunday, 5 June 2005 17:25 (twenty years ago)

If Borges were still alive, this would be a good subject for a story.

― RS (Catalino) LaRue (RSLaRue), Sunday, 5 June 2005 17:28 (twenty years ago)

i never shred my bank statements. i barely ever open the envelope actually. hooooooo-eeeeeeeee

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Sunday, 5 June 2005 17:31 (twenty years ago)

Me too but ... this was like a pile of several thousand complete financial info sheets for college students' families.

― Cool Hand Luuke (ex machina), Sunday, 5 June 2005 17:51 (twenty years ago)

Heh, caitlin, somewhere I have a pile of unopened bank statements from a while back when opening them was just too frightening and depressing. It's only in the past six months that I've been confident and liquid enough to be able to start reading them again.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 5 June 2005 17:56 (twenty years ago)

I throw out my bank statements because there's nothing in there anyway and no credit card linked. If someone wanted to commit fraud or whatever, they really wouldn't have much to work with.

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 5 June 2005 18:05 (twenty years ago)

Yea, I glance at mine to make sure there is nothing weird.

― Cool Hand Luuke (ex machina), Sunday, 5 June 2005 18:07 (twenty years ago)

Mmm, it's good to be able to make sure that there isn't anything dodgy-looking on the statement.

Plus, it keeps reminding me that I need to cancel that quarterly standing order for the insurance policy on the old mobile phone I threw out a year ago.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 5 June 2005 18:10 (twenty years ago)

I always burn any documents such as bank statements which have personal/financial information on them, but this is probably less to do with fear of identity theft and more to do with my liking for arson.

― C J (C J), Sunday, 5 June 2005 18:26 (twenty years ago)

Well I'm not inviting you round my place, then.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 5 June 2005 18:47 (twenty years ago)

Feeding them into the shredder is good fun too, but it tends to get blocked up after a while.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 5 June 2005 18:49 (twenty years ago)

I'm a bit nervous around shredders. I always worry that my hair or a floppy bit of clothing will get caught in the blades and drag me to a messy death.

― C J (C J), Sunday, 5 June 2005 18:52 (twenty years ago)

Ha ha ha, this *is* the best thread ever. How could I have missed it?

― The Square Root Of Negative Two (kate), Monday, 6 June 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)

hi i've picked up your card caitlin oh no do you want it back?

― cait|in oh no (ken c), Monday, 6 June 2005 13:21 (twenty years ago)

Would a char* ever steal your memory?

― Rufus 3000 (Mr Noodles), Monday, 6 June 2005 13:31 (twenty years ago)

Caitlin Hell, may I show you my oorthoganal projection

― JW, Monday, 6 June 2005 13:36 (twenty years ago)

i got the card, nobody's stolen my identitties yet

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Monday, 6 June 2005 18:33 (twenty years ago)

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